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The most important first step to optimizing your Web site to the search
engines is proper keyword selection. If you target the wrong keywords, all
your efforts will be in vain!
If you optimize your Web pages for keywords that you think are important,
but few, if anybody on the Web searches for those keywords, then you can
have all the number one rankings and still gain no new traffic from them. We
have achieved many top rankings but were embarrassed when they didn't
receive any new traffic from all our efforts
We have discovered a much better way to uncover
the best keywords, and how to accomplish it in a shorter amount of time.
We recommend and use a service called WordTracker.
That was almost two years ago. Now we don’t even begin a project without
testing assumptions on WordTracker.
How WordTracker helps find the right keyword.
The rewards of WordTracker are many:
- WordTracker estimates the amount of "projected" traffic you can expect
from each search engine by achieving an optimal ranking for that keyword.
They do this by taking the known popularity of the search in relation to
other statistics they have acquired.
- WordTracker will give you a count of how many times a keyword was
searched over a period of time. Their database is always current with old
data being bumped out in favor of new data each day. They pull their
results from multiple metacrawlers on the Web
Some search terms change popularity. Seeing changes in trends more quickly
will give you a competitive edge. In addition, they have a feature that
lets you see the top 1000 most popular keywords for last 36 hours or the
last 54 days. If you're an entrepreneur on the lookout for up and coming
new trends on the Web, check these often.
- WordTracker helps you “brainstorm” new keywords. Many consultants get
paid big bucks to come up with a big list of highly targeted keywords and
phrases. You'd be surprised at how many excellent keywords and phrases
they’ve overlooked after you start getting second and third opinions.
WordTracker takes a single keyword or phrase, doing a search for Web sites
matching that keyword, and then extracts keywords from their Meta tags.
WordTracker then assembles a list of dozens of keywords, many that you
may never have thought of. You can then go down the list and check the words
you deem appropriate to your site. WordTracker will then do a "competitive
analysis" and rank these keywords based on how often they are searched AND
how competitive they are. This competitive estimate is based on the number
of times the search word or phrase appears in the search engine.
They use a complex formula (it is described in length on the site) that
then ranks your list of new keywords based on how difficult it would be to
accomplish high rankings on that search engine. You gain MORE traffic for
LESS work.
Changes over recent years make it more user friendly and robust tool.
If you’ve tried WordTracker before I’d encourage you to check it out
again. They have increased the size of their database ten fold and improved
the help feature considerably. The support department is always on the look
out for ways to improve the service. It is obvious that they have listened
by increased options and better user interface.
WordTracker charges a fee based on how long you wish to use the service.
Pricing starts around $6.95 for a one-day subscription. They also have
weekly, monthly and yearly subscriptions We recommend a minimum one week
subscription because it gives you plenty of time to build your "optimal"
list of keywords to target. The longer-term options are good if you're
optimizing a lot of sites or pages over the course of the year, or just wish
to stay current on what the best keywords are at any given time. If you're
serious about optimizing your Web site, the one year subscription may be
well worth the investment. If it helps, I've seen no better service
regardless of the price. The help it provides in brainstorming keywords is
worth the price in itself.
The free trial available on the site takes you through a wizard interface
to select and find keywords. It is limited in how many keywords it will
return as well as only giving you results from AltaVista’s search engine. It
does give you a good feel for some of the things WordTracker is capable of
and allows you to learn how to use their service. The free trial shows only
a fraction of the search options in the full version. For example, the full
version has many options such as simple search, exact search, compressed
search, comprehensive search, keyword universe, full search, misspellings
search, keyword projects, top 1000 reports, and stuff you probably never
even thought of.
The biggest vote of confidence on their part is the guarantee. They offer
an unconditional money-back guarantee if you're not fully satisfied with the
paid service.
TIP: Use WordTracker to check the feasibility of
your new project and determine your “optimal” keywords before beginning a
new project or page for your site. It should be the first thing you do
before you writing the first word, even before you decide on the title of
your page.
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